The Hat Dance

Isis has decided that she does not want to have her teeth brushed. As a matter of fact, if you look very closely, you can see her front teeth are developing a very pretty yellow tinge to them. I asked her pediatrician about this, thinking she would assure me it's no big deal and that most parents have no luck cleaning their toddler's chompers. Wrong. She relayed the importance of cleaning Isis' teeth and told us to hold her down and brush those suckers. We tried this and it just wasn't worth the battle or the tears. So instead of getting mean, we got crafty.

Outside of our bathroom hang a bunch of hats...baseball caps, navy hats, a straw hat, a cowboy hat, and a hat with a feather. Here was our new plan. One of us would sit in the bathroom with Isis. The other would put on a hat, dance around like a fool, and hopefully make Isis laugh. This would hopefully give the "brusher" the opportunity to stick the brush in and make contact with a few teeth.

This has worked very well. After story time Isis runs and announces to the other parent, "hat" which signals the start of the hat dance. We used to ask her, "Who is gonna wear the hat tonight?" She would then carry the chosen hat to the chosen parent who would then begin the dance. Now when we ask who is going to wear the hat she says, "Iseeees."



What I have failed to mention is that the hat dance is typically performed while listening to a Spanish radio station. And after the tooth brushing has taken place we all run into her room and dance around together to new music and unfamiliar words. I often wonder to myself what this would look like to someone peeking in.

A few weeks ago my midwife asked how our family was doing and if Chris and I still liked each other even after being parents. I shared with her about our hat dance and how we are still learning to work together as a team to accomplish tasks. She shared that families who have "rituals" or routines or events that are unique to their family typically have better mental well being. I was comforted by her words to know that we aren't crazy and that this silly hat dance is actually a good thing. Hopefully it will continue to make us a happy family, even if Isis has yellow teeth.